Concave Surface Boundary Layer Flows in the Presence of Streamwise Vortices

Abstract

Concave surface boundary-layer flows are subjected to centrifugal instability which results in the formation of streamwise counter-rotating vortices. Such boundary layer flows have been experimentally investigated on concave surfaces of 1 m and 2 m radius of curvature. In the experiments, to obtain uniform vortex wavelengths, thin perturbation wires placed upstream and perpendicular to the concave surface leading edge, were used to pre-set the wavelengths. Velocity contours were obtained from hot-wire anemometer velocity measurements. The most amplified vortex wavelengths can be pre-set by the spanwise spacing of the thin wires and the free-stream velocity. The velocity contours on the cross-sectional planes at several streamwise locations show the growth and breakdown of the vortices. Three different vortex growth regions can be identified. The occurrence of a secondary instability mode is also shown as mushroom-like structures as a consequence of the non-linear growth of the streamwise vortices. Wall shear stress measurements on concave surface of 1 m radius of curvature reveal that the spanwise-averaged wall shear stress increases well beyond the flat plate boundary layer values. By pre-setting much larger or much smaller vortex wavelength than the most amplified one, the splitting or merging of the streamwise vortices will respectively occur.